High school football: Carl Albert's Gary Rose, Norman North's Wade Standley have truly guided teams to state title games

High school football coaches are always quick to credit their players for success on the field, and rightfully so.

But regardless of the outcome in the Class 5A and 6A state championship games this weekend at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, two coaches deserve a great deal of credit for getting their teams this far.

Carl Albert Titans head coach Gary Rose talks with players as his team plays the Del City Eagles in Class 5A, first round, playoff action in high school football on Friday, Nov. 9, 2012 in Del City, Okla. Photo by Steve Sisney, The Oklahoman

Carl Albert's Gary Rose and Norman North's Wade Standley have orchestrated completely different, but equally impressive turnaround jobs to have their teams playing for state titles this weekend.

Standley took over a Timberwolves squad that was 2-8 the year before he arrived, and barely surpassed .500 in his first season. Now, they're 12-1, getting ready to take on Jenks, one of the state's football kingpins, for the Class 6A title at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Rose has eight state championships to his name, tied for second-most in state history, but 2012 might go down as the best coaching job of his illustrious career.

It might seem outlandish, but it very well might be true. The Titans were 1-5 in mid-October. And at 7:30 Saturday night, they'll face Tulsa East Central for the 5A gold ball.

“It's one of the most fulfilling and gratifying feelings to see these kids respond like this when it was really bleak,” Rose said after last week's 56-33 semifinal win over McGuinness. “If you had seen me after the Guthrie game (on Oct. 5) — we could've won and we should've won that game, and we didn't get it done. And I take the blame. I wasn't getting something done, and we had to take care of it.”

One key piece to the turnaround was Rose's attitude. His approach with his team was no different at 1-5 than it was when the team was succeeding.

“Every day, he was coming in, letting us know that we were gonna keep working, and we were gonna be able to do it,” lineman Kyler Walker said. “He's always the same, always telling us how much he loves us, and if we keep working, we can achieve our goals.”

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by Scott Wright

Reporter

A lifelong resident of the Oklahoma City metro area, Scott Wright has been on The Oklahoman staff since 2005, covering a little bit of everything on the state's sports scene. He has been a beat writer for football and basketball at Oklahoma and...